Hope Springs Eternal

Mar 30, 2020

I am very grateful that going outside has not yet been cancelled. The weekend’s weather was simply glorious and warm spring temperatures always revive the spirit. Many plants were in bloom and it was just a great day to be out with the camera.

The annual cherry blossom festival in DC was cancelled this year for obvious reasons and visitors discouraged from even visiting the Tidal Basin.The famous trees reached full-bloom last week but relatively few people saw them in person.

Never have I gone to DC to experience the cherry blossom trees but the pictures always depict amazing beauty.These 3,000 trees were a gift from Japan in 1912 to celebrate the friendship between the Japanese and American people.

Fortunately, I was able to have my own private encounter with cherry blossoms here at home.The pink fluffy flowers were also peaking near the studio and around them was the incessant buzz of bumblebees hard at work.We humans may be locked down but nature is still hard at it.

Later, I read that bees particularly like cherry blossoms because they are able to collect both nectar and pollen from this bloom. Bees actually sponge pollen onto their lower legs, abdomen and mouth.As they bee-bop around from flower to flower, the insect spreads the goods on other flowers.Look closely at the back right leg of the bee in the picture.See the orange dot - the drop of nectar?That was a lucky shot!

Watching nature at work is inspiring to me. It has the rhythm of seasons and weather; sometimes predictable, other times not. No matter what’s thrown at it, nature keeps moving.

Hope is a feeling or expectation for a certain thing to happen.

Springs is the motion of suddenly moving forward.

Eternal is to last forever.

I think it’s safe to say that we all hope for a quick cure and the Coronavirus will be gone forever.